Local Honor Students exceed goal in Help for the Homeless Project

Last year, Raven Pierce and her mother decided to collect bags of necessities and distribute them to the homeless over the winter.After she saw how great was the need – and how grateful were the recipients – Raven decided to expand the effort this year.So she told her Surry County High School Honor Society advisor Kenneth Bell about the need, hoping that there might be interest from the group. As a result, in November, the Honor Society Students partnered with the Surry County Department of Youth and Family Resources and United to Empower to collect items for donation to the homeless for the winter season.

The student volunteers started in November with the goal of making 50 bags.In December, when they finished assembling their bags of personal hygiene products, hats, gloves and snack items, they realized that they had nearly doubled their goal, with 90 special bags to help homeless folks through the winter.Some bags will even include warm blankets.

Those 90 special packages now are being delivered to homeless shelters in the Hampton Roads area during the holiday season and on through the winter by Volunteers from United to Empower, an adult volunteer organization that supports the Surry Department of Youth and Family Resources.

Raven’s mom, Sophenia Pierce, who is also The Director of theDepartment of Youth and Family Resources, said that she is “very appreciative of the tremendous effort by the students and the Honor Society. And I just give thanks to Mr. Kenneth Bell and all of the students who donated and organized supplies. Also, the department is grateful to the women’s ministry of Jerusalem Baptist Church of Waverly, VA and Surry Dominion Power Volunteers. Both groups provided blankets and/or toiletry items for the Help for the Homeless Project. “